Prior to kick-off, there would have been a natural fear for the visitors that they would be unable to cope with the physical nature of Carroll’s presence up front for the Hammers.

Both Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren needed to produce a solid performance in order to deal with his threat, but they were unable to do so on this occasion as Carroll rose above the former to send a stunning headed effort beyond Simon Mignolet.

After Michail Antonio had given the hosts the lead after just 10 minutes, it added to Jurgen Klopp’s misery as his side continued to struggle to have any impact in the game with Emre Can going closest with an effort that struck the crossbar just before half-time.

However, the German tactician will want to see more from his players in the final half an hour of the game as they look set to miss out on the opportunity to close the gap on their rivals in the top four ahead of the remaining fixtures in the Premier League this weekend.

Meanwhile, a victory for West Ham would see Slaven Bilic’s side leapfrog the Reds and go up to fifth for the time being, The Hammers have continued to impress this season and they were handed another welcome boost with Dimitri Payet returning to action after an injury layoff.